Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that police efforts are adequately resourced to tackle wildlife crime.

The Home Office is providing £365,000 this financial year to fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit for intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.

In addition, this financial year the Home Office will be providing the first funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (NRCU). The funding boost of over £800,000 will help the units tackle those crimes that predominantly affect our rural communities.

This will allow these specialist units to continue their work in tackling rural and wildlife crime which can pose unique challenges for policing given the scale and isolation of rural areas.

In addition we continue to support and work closely with both specialist police Units. The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.